


Together in Silence

by LadyEnna_50



Series: Secrets and Promises [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Fate & Destiny, Gen, Identity Reveal, Kagami Tsurugi Knows, Luka Couffaine Knows, Post-Season/Series 03, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:28:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26049544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyEnna_50/pseuds/LadyEnna_50
Summary: Kagami and Luka talk to each other about their less than fulfilling relationships with Adrien and Marinette and reach a startling conclusion.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Luka Couffaine & Kagami Tsurugi, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Secrets and Promises [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890985
Comments: 10
Kudos: 129





	Together in Silence

**Author's Note:**

> This (quite long) one shot explains a few things that will come up in A Marinette Original, The First Time She and the Fall of the House of Agreste series. Somehow my stories published to date are getting interlinked. There will be another chapter of A Marinette Original very soon.

Luka casually strummed his guitar on deck as he practiced the latest Kitty Section riffs with Kagami sat next to him. From the houseboat she could clearly watch the two fencers playfully spar on the side of the Seine.

She smiled as the smaller of the two carefully blocked a move, distracted, then thrust low to the chest, with a grace that would ensure she got the winning point.

“Who taught you how to do that!” The taller of the two shouted out.

The smaller one laughed and lifted her face shield, brushing some loose strands of dark blue hair of her slightly sweating brow. “Only the best fencer in Paris.” She pointed to Kagami who bowed her head slightly.

The taller one laughed as well, briefly lifting his shield to move some of his blonde hair away from his green eyes. “I might have known. Seriously Marinette, if you keep being as good as this, Monsieur D’Argencourt will have to find you a place on the team.”

“Adrien, you know I haven’t got the time to fit anything else into my already bursting at the seams schedule.” She sighed. “For all I know, my parents may be calling me back any minute to help out the bakery and I still have some work to do on Jagged’s jacket. Fortunately, I got my homework completed on Friday evening so I could hang out with you guys.”

“I’m so glad you did.” Adrien breathed steadily. They shared a tender look that wasn’t missed by Luka or Kagami. Luka stopped playing. Kagami stood up carefully, a picture of perfect composure.

“Ready for round two.” Kagami called quickly with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “En garde! Prêts? Allez!”

The two younger teenagers quickly replaced their masks before starting all over again. Kagami sat down with an exasperated sigh that only Luka heard.

“You too, hey.” He said simply.

He started to play a slightly different melody, one that Kagami felt soothed her troubled heart. She watched the pseudo fencing match with little emotion. Marinette was certainly getting better and it was all because of her. She had felt that she needed to have something in common with her only female friend and had taken it on herself to tutor her in the very few moments they had together.

In truth, due to poor scheduling, she saw more of Marinette then Adrien… yet he was supposed to be her boyfriend. Their parents approved, they were a perfect match… this relationship, her first serious one, was supposed to be perfect. They were made for each other. Or so she had thought. The constant bailouts whenever there was an akuma attack had become somewhat irritating.

Luka’s melody changed slightly again.

“That’s new?” She mentioned.

“Almost …” He played a few more notes. “Still needs a little more work.”

Suddenly all four of their phones buzzed. Akuma Alert. The two fencers stopped and looked at their own phones before rushing back to the boat. Luka and Kagami watched in mild expectation.

“I … er … gotta go … to the bakery.” Marinette declared dropping off the fencing items she had borrowed from Kagami. “Thanks for lending me these, I’ll see you sometime next week. And Luka.” She paused to give him a brief kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow after school.” She turned towards Adrien, but he was already running away.

“You know what dad’s like.” He yelled back. “I have to be as close to the mansion as possible whenever there’s an Akuma attack.” Then he was gone. ‘Accidentally’ leaving his hurriedly packed fencing bag behind.

The three of them shrugged before Marinette looked back at her phone. “Gotta go… sorry.” She ran off in a separate direction from Adrien.

Kagami and Luka sat in silence for a moment.

“So, are you going to remark on the fact she was running in a different direction from the bakery, or shall I?” Luka mentioned quietly.

Kagami smiled and tried to hide the tears in her eyes. “You would almost think that they are trying to make it clear they are not together.”

There was another pause. Luka handed her a tissue to dry her eyes. A look of fury fell briefly upon his face. “Do you think they are together?” He said softly.

“I don’t know what to think. At least you got a kiss.” Kagami sniffed. She stood and went to pick up her bag. “Thank you for your company, Luka.”

Luka grabbed her gently by the wrist. “Wait? They may come back.”

Kagami looked towards the direction Adrien had run in. “Who knows, and does it matter.” She sniffed. “Adrien clearly has no intention of returning to the mansion at the moment.”

“How can you be so sure.” Luka asked gently. Kagami pointed out the light grey Sedan parked just around the corner.

“His bodyguard is still waiting over by the delicatessen. He’s still reading his newspaper. Adrien didn’t go anywhere near him.”

Luka looked up. “Very observant.” He remarked his lips a thin line. He looked at the Japanese girl. She was shaking softly. Doing all she could to maintain her composure.

“It’s a poor excuse anyhow…” She sniffed again. “Even when we have been at the mansion, he’s disappeared for hours with no explanation.”

“Does his father know?” Luka looked down. “I heard that he has him on a tight leash.”

“I couldn’t tell his father.” Kagami sighed. “Things are fragile enough as they are.”

Luka gently touched her shoulder. “Stay a while. I’ll get you something to drink.” He carefully guided her back onto the seat. “Orange juice ok?”

Kagami nodded. Luka went to get the drinks. Kagami used the rest of the tissue to wipe away the remaining tears, betrayal of emotions just was not something she felt comfortable with. She just couldn’t believe that she had misread Adrien so much, he was supposed to be a perfect gentleman. Not some flighty teenager. Yet the three months they had supposedly been together had painted an altogether different picture.

Luka returned and handed her the juice. “You can let the tears fall you know.” His voice was so soft.

“What about you?” Kagami looked at him properly for the first time. There was emotion in his eyes, but an altogether different approach to dealing with it.

“I’ll probably put it all into my music later on.” He decided.

She nodded. “I wish I had a way to remove emotion so efficiently.”

Luka chuckled. “I wouldn’t call it efficient, but it works for me.” He sat back down but didn’t pick up the guitar. “I could teach you sometime.”

“I think I might like that.” Kagami’s voice was almost a whisper.

They sat in silence for a while sipping their drinks. It was comfortable. The akuma battle was on the other side of the city. The occasional sounds of sirens and distant explosions the only suggestion that something was going on. Sitting quietly on the houseboat, they could even hear the birds sing. If it wasn’t for the turmoil in her heart, Kagami would even say it was pleasant.

She recalled silent times with Adrien. He hated them. He had told her that home was silent enough as it was, and he had had enough of it. At every opportunity, he strived to fill silence with activity, sound and colour. Homework, language study, his piano, video games and movies – despite expressing a need to relax, he didn’t want to do it in silence. True contemplative silence, like the one she was sharing with Luka at this moment caused him to react like a caged animal. He would get nervous and fidget with his ring, or his leg would jig up and down in nervousness. It could be the company but Kagami couldn’t really tell. He was always polite, a gentleman, the perfect son and doing everything he could to respect her and her status. Yet she always felt as if he had some aspect of his personality that he just wasn’t comfortable enough to share with her. They hardly ever talked about it, which was another set of issues. As an active person herself, she was surprised how much she valued the silence and calm with just letting herself pause in it.

Silent times with Marinette were a different matter. She was a veritable ball of energy but put a project in front of her and she let the silence envelop her like a glove. Kagami recalled how she had popped over there just before fencing to ask if she could help her repair a button on her jacket. She hadn’t hesitated and sat down immediately to work on it and was soon in a zone of her own. It was pleasant, but Kagami wondered if she was intruding. Marinette had assured she wasn’t and said she was more than welcome to join her whenever she had had the time. Her offer to teach Marinette fencing had come as a direct result of this interaction and she had been very impressed at how quickly the younger girl had learnt the skill. There had been an akuma attack once whilst she was there, just before they planned to head across to the park to spar. Marinette ran downstairs to say she had to talk to her parents in the bakery. She didn’t return, but as the akuma seemed to target the bakery, Kagami had had to escape as quickly as she could with the help of the superheroes. Both Ladybug and Chat Noir had paid her extra special attention, although something about Chat Noir suggested that he hadn’t expected her to be in Marinette’s room at all. When Kagami pointed out Marinette was missing, Chat Noir seemed to panic but Ladybug was quick to reassure everyone that the girl was safe.

Silent times that were pleasant were rare. Silent times free of the need to make conversation and be anything more than her true self were even rarer. Kagami was a girl of few words. She disliked making unnecessary conversation, but both Adrien and Marinette seemed to relish the interaction, even going so far as a pun battle which made her cringe. He was clearly more comfortable with Marinette beside him.

Luka seemed lost in thought too. He drained his drink and turned to Kagami. “Are you hungry?” He asked her gently, he reached for a box. “I’ve got some pastries that Marinette…”

He stalled and seemed to have a need to stop, close his eyes and control his breathing. Kagami realised that he must be hurting as much as she was. She laid a gentle hand on his arm.

“Thank you, Luka, that’s very kind of you.” She spoke softly, as she took a croissant. She wasn’t hungry, she just wanted to give herself something to do as she sank into the contemplative silence again. Luka put the box between them. He reached for a macaron and gently spun it in his hand.

“H...how long before your driver officially collects you?” Luka asked tentatively.

Kagami looked at her phone. “I have about an hour of unscheduled time left, but I can call the car earlier if required.”

“If that’s what you want to do.” Luka went to put the uneaten sweet treat down to reach for his guitar, but then stopped dropping his arm to his lap.

Kagami glanced at him. If not even music could help him, he must be taking it badly. Was it worse than she was? There was only one way to find out.

She took a deep breath. “I’m good to stay, if you don’t mind my company.” She smiled, she had had a little more practice with the gesture now.

“I think I’d like that.” Luka muttered. “Mum and Jules won’t be back from their shopping trip with Rose and her mother for at least another hour.”

There was another crash from the area of the akuma. They looked towards the city.

“Do you think they are ok?” Kagami asked tentatively. “Who, Mum, Jules and Rose or … Marinette and Adrien?” Luka smiled wryly.

“Your mother and sisters of course.” Kagami smiled blinking back a tear. “I should imagine Marinette and Adrien can look after themselves.”

“Yes, that’s the truth.” Luka still smiled, but Kagami could see it didn’t reach his eyes. He cleared his throat. “Mum and the girls are fine, she sent me a text whilst I was getting the juice. The Akuma is in a different arrondissement from them and is apparently quite localised. We can watch the footage on the Ladyblog if you wish.”

Kagami shook her head warily “I’d rather not, if you don’t mind.”

“Suits me fine.” Luka enthusiastically agreed. He started to play with the Macaron again. Kagami found herself looking at Adrien’s fencing bag. Luka watched her carefully.

“You must really love him.” He finally suggested.

“Yes.” Kagami sighed. “At least I thought I did. I was so sure we were made for each other.” She brushed some crumbs off her skirt. “Maybe I was just hoping that the boy my mother was pushing me towards was as perfect as I wished for.” She laughed. “I’ve never considered myself a dreamer, but I suppose I had some strange idea about love at first sight.”

“You haven’t met many boys then?” Luka asked timidly.

“Honestly.” Kagami looked him in the eye. “Apart from those training with me for Olympian glory? No, not really.” She looked down at her hands. “Then again, I haven’t really met anyone at all, not least those individuals of similar age. I have had quite a sheltered life.”

Luka lowered his head in thought. “I don’t think I could ever describe my life as ‘sheltered’.” He smiled. “Mum always liked the bohemian lifestyle; we’d have musicians and artists visiting us on the Liberty at all hours of the day.” He smiled “She was good enough to make sure that the creative activities didn’t compromise me or Jules though. We always had as much love, opportunity and kindness we needed to grow.”

“Sounds wonderful.” Kagami smiled, she thought she could really appreciate a life like that. “Much better then stuffy business dinners and pretending to be an adult whilst you were only just out of diapers.”

“You know where to come if you ever need a more chaotic approach to life.” Luka told her, he meant it.

“Thank you, Luka.” Brown eyes met turquoise. “I think I’d appreciate that.” Their matching smiles were genuine.

Kagami turned away. “What about Marinette?” She asked tentatively.

“I really hoped she was the one.” Luka sighed. “Her heart music was just … so beautiful, inspiring, pure.” He looked abashed. “Addictive I suppose.” He reached for the guitar again, this time placing it on his knees. “I knew that her song belonged to someone else… I just hoped that… considering the circumstances… I could change it to be directed towards me.” He took a bite out of the macaron. “Perhaps I was being a little selfish.” He finished the macaron in one go.

Kagami chuckled. “There’s nothing wrong in being a little selfish sometimes.” She looked across to where they could still hear sirens and explosions. “Fighting against ancient magical forces controlling destiny and inevitable partnerships on the other hand…”

Luka gently plucked out a light melody. “How long have you known?”

Kagami sighed deeply as she pondered the question. “Officially … not too long, we’ve only been dating for a few months and, well it wasn’t hard to join up the dots. Even when the battles were short, it was clear he’d been using up a lot of energy and his excuses were becoming more than a little dubious. What about you?”

“Marinette’s heart song has always had an underlying cadence… like an orchestra waiting to explode into action.” He strummed a few chords as if to demonstrate. “I once met Ladybug when I was not affected by an akuma and I heard this and Marinette’s heart song at the same time.”

“That’s a powerful gift you have.” Kagami decided. “Sometimes it’s a curse.” Luka returned to his original melody. “As for Adrien... He’s definitely not eating enough calories for the work he’s doing.” Luka paused to grab another macaron.

“I know, I’d started to slip energy bars into his bag.” She laughed. “I think his kwami seems to prefer cheese though, judging by the amount of camembert in there.”

Luka laughed. “I never had the chance to find out what my kwami liked to eat.”

“You had a kwami too?” Kagami looked at him wide eyed. “What was your kwami like?”

“He was called Sass; he was a snake. He transformed me into Viperion.” Luka took a bite of his macaron. “My special power granted the opportunity to have a ‘second chance’. In other words, go back in time and try again.”

“That sounds very impressive.” Kagami was genuine. “What was your weapon like?”

“I had a lyre.” Luka mentioned. “Not exactly the most threatening item.”

“Sounds like the perfect miraculous for you though.” Kagami was impressed.

“I think so.” Luka took another bite of the macaron. “Apparently I was more successful than Adrien was with it.”

“Adrien had the Snake miraculous first?” Now Kagami was surprised. “Didn’t that interfere with the Black Cat miraculous?”

“In light of recent and not so recent discoveries, that is probably why it didn’t work for him.” Luka contemplated. “He was the one who recommended me to Ladybug and convinced her to let me try the miraculous. I think that was the day, I suspected that there was more to our model friend then met the eye.”

“I too had a kwami.” Kagami confessed. “It was a dragon named Longg.”

“A dragon?” Luka looked at her with a grin. “So cool.”

“With Longg’s help, I had the power over three of the elements.” Kagami smiled. “Water, air and lightening.” She looked sad. “I only had the opportunity to experience water and air. I should have liked to see what lightening achieved.”

“What weapon did you have?”

“A sword.” Kagami grinned, guessing what Luka would say.

“A perfect combination.” He smiled as if reading her thoughts.

“It is sad, that I am unlikely to be reacquainted with Longg.” She said thoughtfully. “My identity was compromised.”

Luka sighed. “If I heard the rumours correctly, all of our identities were compromised when Chloe was akumatised again.” Luka smiled, “Shame really, Sass seemed pretty chill.”

“Do you think they know each other’s identities?” The fencer asked tentatively.

“I doubt it, Adrien is oblivious enough to Marinette’s feelings without figuring out she’s the masked love of his life.” Luka laughed. “And Marinette seems to not to want to know.” He looked at Kagami with sincerity. “She was really trying hard to get over Adrien by the way. She has a lot of love and respect for you.”

“I do not doubt that fact at all, she is kindness personified.” Kagami took a deep breath. “I suppose I just got impatient of watching her dance around the issue of declaring her feelings for him.”

“I think I felt the same.” Luka admitted. “Things would have been so different if she had just had more confidence in herself and taken that single step.”

“I have always believed that it is not wise to dwell on past issues.” Kagami looked over towards Notre Dame Cathedral. “It cannot be altered, only learnt from.”

Luka nodded. “Agreed.” He looked at his studious companion. “So, what shall we do about the present?”

“If we do nothing, none of us will have a happy future.” She stated simply.

“That’s the truth.” Luka put his guitar down. “We have to do something, neither Marinette nor Adrien will.”

“They would both be too afraid of hurting us.” Kagami concluded. Luka nodded in agreement, “Even if the end result is a better option.”

He closed his eyes in thought. “Ladybug and Cat Noir are meant to be together or else more than just the four of us will be hurt.”

“I’m already hurting.” Kagami admitted.

“I know, so am I.” Luka picked up his guitar again. “Let’s see if we can find a way to make a better song … one that works for all of us.”

Kagami touched his arm gently. “Together.” She smiled wistfully.

Luka smiled back. “Together.”

He played another song to ease their aching hearts. For once Kagami surrendered to the sound and let herself get lost in the music. Together she and Luka would find a way to bring their respective partners back to where they were meant to be. Together.

**Author's Note:**

> There will be a few more Kagami centric stories in the pipeline. I like Luka and Kagami as characters - just not exclusively with Marinette and Adrien. (


End file.
